KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) - A free trade agreement between Southeast Asia and the East Asia Summit grouping is on track to be signed within the next 10 years, ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said Tuesday. "It can be done. All you need is to get all the governments to sign on a piece of paper," said Ong, brushing aside suggestions that a 10-year target was too ambitious. The East Asia Summit embraces the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with regional powers China, Japan and South Korea, and new members Australia, India and New Zealand. The inaugural summit of the grouping, mooted as a future giant free-trade community embracing half the world's population, was held last December. Ong said a free-trade pact between the 10-member ASEAN and the other six East Asia Summit members was already in the pipeline but that the nations involved will still need time to prepare their citizens. "The trade among ASEAN and the countries from North and East Asia is really very substantial so it makes sense to liberalise trade and from there further liberalise investment," Ong told reporters. "We have to prepare our citizens and our industry... on paper we can do things in a few years but practically we have to prepare our ground," Ong said. "As for Australia and New Zealand they are developed economies. Their exports here are things that we don't produce in large quantities such as cheese and milk," he said. "They also import a lot of goods from this region." India, Japan and Australia are hoping that the East Asia Summit will be the first step towards a free-trade East Asia Community but even the concept's proponents admit it is decades from reality. ivy/sls/sm